We all have a geek in our life who’s first to buy new tech or fix our smartphone. Their early bird attitude can make buying them gifts difficult, since they’re so often the ones standing in line at 4 a.m. for the newest gadgets.
However, it is possible to beat them to the punch. We’ve listed 10 gifts that the geek(s) in your life will love.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
1. Anki Vector: $249
The Vector robot by Anki may look like a child’s toy, but it’s much more than that. This adorable little guy can act as a smart home assistant, replying to your questions with beautifully animated answers.
The Vector can also take photos with its high-definition camera, recognize its owners, navigate without crashing into things and play games. The robot will soon include Amazon Alexa functionality (because controlling your smart home with a robot is much more fun than with a smart speaker).
Image Credit: Anki.
2. Apple Watch Series 4: $399
Smartwatches are inherently geeky thanks to their computer-on-the-wrist appearance and Secret Service-esque phone call capabilities.
The Watch Series 4 includes a walkie talkie feature that allows multiple smartwatch owners to communicate with each other. In addition, the Watch can track your movements and sleep (the latter through third-party apps), and will soon be able to take an EKG, making it a bona fide piece of medical equipment.
Image Credit: Apple.
3. DJI Mavic 2: $1,249
Drones are both cool and geeky, but what makes DJI’s Mavic range especially geeky is how neatly it can fit into a pocket. It can also shoot 4K video, track moving objects, fly up to 40 mph and stay airborne for up to 30 minutes.
Sure, pilots look pretty geeky while they set everything up, but the images and videos that these quad-copters produce is spectacular. If the Mavic 2 is out of your budget, then you should consider the cheaper (and even more compact) Mavic Air.
Image Credit: DJI.
4. Amazon Echo: $99
The Amazon Echo is the go-to smart speaker, offering good sound quality, Alexa’s impressive intelligence and charming fabric design.
Echo smart speakers can play music and control smart home devices, making them quite geeky. Nothing says both “geeky” and “cool” like asking Alexa to hit the lights.
Image Credit: Amazon.
5. PlayStation Classic: $100
Geeks of a certain age may have fond memories of the original PlayStation. Sony is following Nintendo’s lead by producing a mini-console stuffed with classic games.
The PlayStation Classic is much smaller than the bulky original, but it features the same design and the same controller. It comes pre-loaded with 20 great PlayStation games, including Metal Gear Solid, Rayman and Tekken 3.
Image Credit: Sony.
6. Withings Sleep: $100
The Withings Sleep logs your sleep duration and cycles to tell you whether you’re getting a good night’s rest. It also connects to the Health Mate app to give you additional sleep resources.
Image Credit: Withings.
7. Smart plugs: $20
These cheap, simple devices can turn almost any household item into a smart gadget. You can activate a smart plug-enabled device with as little as a verbal command.
A bunch of plugs might not seem like the most exciting of holiday gifts, but hand them over to any self-respecting geek and they’ll come up with a dozen uses for them in a single weekend.
Image Credit: TanTan.
8. Philips Hue color starter kit: $190
Smart lights like this Philips Hue starter kit pull off that perfect trick of being geeky while remaining accessible for the less tech-savvy.
At their simplest, these are just LED bulbs, but connect them to a router and you can make them any color, brightness or temperature. You can also control them with voice commands if you hook them up to a smart assistant.
Image Credit: Philips.
9. Grovemade desk accessories: Various prices
No geek’s desk is complete without a gorgeous Grovemade product. These wood accessories include monitor stands, keyboard docks, phone cases and wireless chargers.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
10. GoPro Hero 7 Black: $400
The latest GoPro camera is another device that, when given to a geek, produces incredible results. The latest action camera is as small and light as ever, but comes standard with impressive image stabilization technology. It’s also water-resistant, has an integrated touch screen and can respond to voice commands.
Shopping for a geek isn’t always easy, but these devices at least make it fun.
This article originally appeared on GearBrain and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: GoPro.
